Clearly, CEDIA offers something for everyone in outfitting a home with the latest in entertainment gear. You will be seeing flat panel TVs in more and more settings in the home. And they will increasingly be HD compatible.

Clearly, CEDIA
offers something for everyone in outfitting a home with the latest in
entertainment gear.You will
be seeing flat panel TVs in more and more settings in the home.And they will increasingly be HD compatible.Wireless technology is also being built into more products,
increasing their capabilities while reducing the time needed for
installation.Whole house
audio continues to be high on homeowners' wish lists and therefore
continues to drive innovation in that sector.

When the good people at HomeToys.com asked me if I
was interested in covering the CEDIA show as a reporter, I jumped at the
chance.The CEDIA show is
Nirvana for people like me - people who fantasize about having flat
panel plasma screens hanging in every room, and a home that is so
automated that it anticipates your every mood, need and desire.

But when I arrived on the show
floor, with my trusty booth location map clearly marked with companies of
interest, I was unprepared for how overwhelming the show can be.I literally stood for 10 minutes in the first aisle,
wondering how I was going to make it from one end of the convention center
to the far end of the football stadium in the next two days.

By the end of two days, I was
swimming in information. So
I've organized what I saw into a few categories that hopefully will help
you navigate to what interests you most.They are:

Keynote
Kickoff

Flat
Panels Galore

Wireless
is Everywhere

Whole
House Audio

Cool
and Unusual Products

Technology
as Art

The
Package Deal

The
Ultimate Home Toys

Wrap
Up and Celebrity Sightings

Keynote
Kickoff

CEDIA kicked off with a keynote
address from Mark Cuban, founder and CEO of HDNet,
the world's first national television network broadcasting all of its
programming in HDTV format.CEDIA
attendees stood four abreast in the hallways, waiting to enter the main
ballroom to hear Cuban speak.

Cuban's company consists of two
channels: HDNet, which broadcasts sports, entertainment and news; and
HDNet Movies, which broadcasts original movies and movies to which the
company has acquired HD broadcasting rights.Both channels broadcast 24/7 in widescreen (16:9), 1080i HDTV
format.

Cuban asserts that once you get HD
content, you become dissatisfied with anything else.The biggest ovation came when he stated that all of HDNet's
content is PVR-friendly, i.e. not copy protected.He rationalized that the concerns over copy protection were
unwarranted given the amount of horsepower needed to convert HD content
for sharing over a peer-to-peer network.

Cuban also raised eyebrows when he
claimed that prices are falling about 2% per month for HD technology, and
that within a year, you will be able to buy a 42" plasma screen TV for
under $1,000."At that
point, they become like furniture," Cuban said.

Speaking of plasma TVs…

Flat
Panels Galore

I remember a few short years ago
when you stopped dead in your tracks at a trade show to marvel at any
company that employed flat panel displays in their booth.

Not any more.

CEDIA was awash with flat screens,
projection TVs and digital projectors.The large consumer electronics manufacturers showed the greatest
range of products, with plasmas, LCDs, and various forms of projection
TVs.Samsung
featured a number of DLP projection TVs in their lineup.DLP, short for Digital Light Processing, is technology developed by
Texas Instruments.According to TI, the
DLP chip contains a rectangular array of up to 1.3 million hinge-mounted
microscopic mirrors; each of these micromirrors measures less than
one-fifth the width of a human hair, and corresponds to one pixel
in a projected image.

What
it means to a consumer is a picture that rivals a photograph, from a
projection TV that is thinner and lighter than older projection systems.The Samsung model HLM507Wpictured
here is 46" wide, only 17" deep, and weighs less than 80 lbs!

Sharp
Electronics had the best booth for showing how flat panel TVs will
occupy every room of your home.In
their booth, built to resemble rooms of a home, flat panel TVs showed up
in some unexpected places.Combined
with elegant mounting hardware and speakers, the flat panels added a high
tech, artistic quality to each room.

The
kitchen included a fold-down panel that hid from view under a cupboard
when not in use.

In
the bathroom, the flat panel complemented the other stylish accessories.One could imagine watching CNN in the morning as you shaved!

Wireless
Everywhere

In years past, the word
"wireless" was often associated with data networking in the home.Now, wireless technology is being used in many different
products, to enable distribution of data and media, and also control of
the sources of this content.

One such
product is the VIA!2 Wireless Touch Panel and Server Station from ELAN
Home Systems.The
VIA!2 Touch Panel incorporates a 7.8 inch screen and communicates
wirelessly via 802.11b to the Server Station.The Server Station translates the VIA!2 commands into IR or
RS-232 commands for controlling whole house audio, home theater,
security, temperature, lighting, drapes, and more.At a suggested retail of $3500 for the system, including a
docking station, the VIA!2 is positioned among the most affordable
of the high-end home control systems.

The VIA!2
is shown here, held by ELAN's President and Chief Technical
Officer, Bob Farinelli, who was namedto Custom Retailer magazine's C-Business 50 as one of the
50 Most Vital Influencers in Custom Electronics.

Another company employing wireless
technology in an innovative way is Photoloom.Scott Laster, the President and CEO of Photoloom, calls his product
an "image appliance".Upon first inspection, it looks like an ordinary framed
picture on the wall.Moments
later, however, the image changes!

It's actually an LCD screen
framed beautifully in a matted picture frame and hung on the wall.Images get sent to it wirelessly from a computer."About 92% of all digital pictures are stored on computers,"
says Mr. Laster."We provide the technology to take those pictures and
instantly immerse them in your life."The image transfer can occur over 802.11, powerline or Ethernet.The display is also a touch panel, allowing users to select the
image they want, email it to a friend, or share it with others on the
network.Future services from
Photoloom will include image backup and recovery, and images that can be
subscribed to over the web, for those days when you're in a black and
white, Ansel Adams kind of mood.

Whole House Audio

Another significant trend at CEDIA
was the abundance of distributed, whole house audio systems.Xantech, a company
known for its line of A/V and infrared distribution and control products,
is expanding into the systems business with the MRC44 and MRC88 audio and
video entertainment systems.The
MRC44 controller/amplifier controls four sources (CD, DVD, VCR, etc.) and
distributes their audio/video to four zones (rooms).Each zone includes an LCD keypad for sending commands to the
controller/amplifier.The
MRC88 expands this concept to 8 sources and 8 zones.In essence, Xantech has taken its expertise in whole house audio,
video and infrared distribution and control and integrated them into a
scalable system.In fact,
each system can be "doubled" to get to 16 sources and 16 zones in a
single home.

Another
innovation from Xantech is their new Smartpad LCD Touchpanels, shown here.Unlike other touchpanels that have buttons for each
function, these LCD panels are completely configurable and enable dealers
to create custom designs for homeowners.The user interface incorporates simple drag and drop functions for
placing source buttons and action buttons.Images can be added as well.Over
a dozen "skins" are available to give the display a unique look and
feel.

Oxmoor
Corporation showed a similar system for distributing digital audio
around the home, but the control panel got a lot of attention for its
unique design.The ZON whole
house digital audio system includes a router for central control and
distribution, distributed input panels for adding sources, and a unique
control panel that incorporates a large, backlit knob.

The
knob, which is also a push button, enables users to quickly scroll through
the sources, choose one, and then scroll through the controls for the
source.When the source is chosen and the volume is set, the
panel can be set to slowly dim the backlight so the panel fades into the
room décor.

Sirius demonstrated another way of
thinking about distributed audio at their booth.Sirius, one of the two satellite radio subscription services
available today, showcased several consumer electronics products designed
to bring satellite radio into your home.Antex
Electronics showed a multizone satellite radio receiver called
TriplePlay that included multiple tuners, enabling listeners to enjoy
different Sirius channels in different rooms.

Kenwood
also offered a home Tuner for Sirius channels, but they went one step
further with another product called the Here2Anywhere Portable Sirius
Tuner.This portable tuner
brings the Sirius channels to where you want to be - your home, your
office, your car or your boat.It's
like an AM/FM portable walkman that picks up 100 streams of satellite
radio.

Finally, OnQ
is expanding their distributed audio business to include a line of
speakers that work with their traditional structured wiring panels.The Home Entertainment Connection Center, shown here, can be
installed behind the home's entertainment center to efficiently route
those audio/video signals throughout the home.In the remote rooms, OnQ now provides a Blue and Gold line of
speakers, priced from $70-$125 per pair.

Cool and Unusual Products

Clearly, I had a hard time
categorizing the following products, as they don't necessarily fit into
a standard category, yet I believe they will be of interest to you, the
HomeToys readers.

Texas
Instruments teamed with Audyssey
Laboratories to demonstrate a new technology called MultEQ, for
equalizing sound in a room.No
picture can communicate what I experienced in this demo - you had to be
there and hear it for yourself.What
TI and Audyssey are developing is a technology that will begin to show up
in consumer electronics products late this year.Together, they increase the size and quality of the "sweet
spot" - that magical area in a room where the sound from your audio
system sounds best to your ears.The
technology uses an audio sensor located in a remote control to measure
sound levels in several different locations of a room.Then, through some signal processing magic, the technology alters
the output from the speakers to compensate for the unique characteristics
of the room.It corrects for
nulls and peaks, and corrects for the center channel audio reflecting off
the screen.The result is
amazing!The music comes
alive.The movie soundtrack
has new depth.Horn sections
reappear in jazz music, and actors' voices resonate with the depth and
clarity they naturally have.The
demonstration used two sets of speakers: a $2500 set of Klipsch speakers,
and a $250 set of Panasonic speakers.The before and after experience, using MultEQ, was dramatic for
both sets of speakers.

NEC
has taken the hint from their customers and has begun marketing their
business projection systems for home use.They demonstrated the WT600 Mirrored Reflection Projector.What is amazing about this device is that it can project an image
42 inches wide when positioned only a few inches away from the wall.When positioned 26 inches from the wall, the projected image is 100
inches!At $6995, it offers
both homeowners and businesses a versatile means of achieving large image
projections in tight quarters

Mission,
the company known for its line of speakers, has taken a fresh look at
where speakers can be placed.Combining
TFT display technology with SurfaceSound loudspeaker technology,
Mission's ViSound products provide audio and video where you least
suspect them.

The
vanity mirror shown here is an example of where Mission intends to go with
this technology.A small
display shows the news in the lower right hand corner.Meanwhile, the audio seems to come from the mirror, yet no speakers
are visible.That's because
the top section of the mirror, the topmost rectangle, is actually a
speaker!Specially designed
transducers drive the upper portion of the mirror.The transducers cause vibrations, which result in sound waves
emanating from the surface.If
you touch it, you can feel the slight vibrations.Otherwise, you would never know there was a speaker in the room.Mission anticipates adding sound to other products in the future.

Also in the category of "now you see it, now
you don't" is a product from VisionArt, a division of Solar
Shading Systems.You say
you'd like to mount your new flat panel plasma screen in the game room,
but you can't bear to part with your crushed velvet painting of Dogs
Playing Poker?Fear no more.You can have your cake and eat it too.VisionArthas created
a product that conceals wall mounted and recess mounted plasma monitors
with a motorized, retractable fine art print that is framed in a
decorative picture frame.Now,
with a push of a button, your room is transformed from high culture to
high tech.

For those of us who are
meteorologically challenged and do not know a dew point from a dipstick,
there is help from WeatherHawk.They make a solar powered weather station that collects
information on wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, rainfall,
barometric pressure and solar radiation.It then calculates the dew point, heat index and wind chill factor.It sends all of this information to your computer via a 916 Mhz
spread spectrum wireless transmitter and receiver that can operate over
distances of up to a half mile.At $1500-2100 list, it's geared for those individuals who
demand the very finest in weather sensing equipment.

Finally, I didn't expect to find
innovation in something as mundane as wire.Well, I was wrong.For
a clue, ask yourself where the wires are on all those beautiful plasma
screens you see in the commercials and magazine ads.The answer is, they're hidden behind the walls.This may or may not be an option for you, depending on the kind of
home you have.Enter DeCorp,
with their FlatWire technology.This
is wiring that is so flat, you can mount it ON the wall, cover it with a
mesh, spackle it with special plaster and paint it, and you'll never
know it is there.They have
flat wires for audio, video, voice/data and electrical connections.The picture from their booth shows a plasma TV being powered by a
flat AC power wire while obtaining its picture from a flat video wire.

Technology as Art

As I wandered the aisles of CEDIA,
it occurred to me that when you pay thousands of dollars for a pair of
speakers or an audio amplifier, you expect more than a well-crafted piece
of equipment.It had better
look good too.Since beauty
is in the eye of the beholder, I thought I'd share a couple of the
products that caught my eye.

The Package Deal

Not all products at CEDIA were
geared for the ultra high-end audience.Many companies have begun packaging components into competitively
priced systems for the average homeowner.

Dish
Network has begun promoting a packaged deal that includes an HDTV with
its Dish Network service.Yes,
they are actually selling the TV with the service.The 811 bundle includes either a 34" CRT or a 40" rear screen
projection HDTV for $1499.The
921 bundle includes PVR capabilities for recording HD content to disk.Both systems can view standard definition as well as high
definition content.

Samsung has packaged up a Home
Theater in a Box.The HT-SK6
includes a progressive scan multi-disk DVD player with a built-in
amplifier capable of driving the six Klipsch speakers that come with the
system.Priced at under $500,
the system provides a home theater environment for the consumer on a
budget.

The Ultimate Home Toy

This brings me to my favorite part
of the show - those products that reside in my fantasy home - the home
I buy after winning the Super Lotto.

Personally, my Ultimate Home Toy
would be a dedicated home theater.A
home theater requires the careful integration of high-end audio systems
with world-class video projection systems.Then, to cap it all off, you must create the environment in which
to enjoy this amazing entertainment - shall we say, the creature
comforts.

The ultimate Home Toy goes to JVC
for their QPIX GA DILA Super Projector.At $200,000 (lens sold separately), it is not for the faint of
heart.This product typically
goes into commercial video theaters, event halls or theme parks.However, according to JVC reps at the show, they have sold a
handful to individuals for use in their private homes.One such homeowner was building a $2 million home theater
"addition" to his house and wanted the very best projector.

For those of you looking for
something a tad lower in price, there is the new Qualia line of projectors
coming from Sony.The Model
SXRD, incorporating a Carl Zeiss lens, retails for just under $25,000.Sony showed clips from Bad Boys II on a 120-inch screen, and
the resolution was breathtaking.

Next we move on to the speakers.How about a pair of TAD Home
Audio's Model-1 Loudspeakers?They
come with beryllium tweeters that are so stiff that touching them is
forbidden lest they crack.But
oh, the sound…it's from heaven!At
$45,000 per pair, they fit right in with the projection equipment.

Next come the creature comforts.After all, we need to be supremely comfortable in order to best
enjoy the experience.This calls for theater seating from Irwin Seating, supplier
to movie theaters, concert halls, and now you, the home theater owner.Some models recline, some are leather-clad, and most have
convenient places for drinks and food.

And yet, these chairs are not
quite complete.When the
tanks rumble in during Saving Private Ryan, or the explosions reverberate
through the room during the latest Matrix sequel, you don't want to just
hear it, you want to FEEL it.Enter
the Guitammer Company with their
ButtKicker series of low frequency effects products.Believe it or not, these devices actually mount to the bottom of
your theater seating and vibrate the whole chair in synch with the audio
track of the movie.The
sensation brings you that much closer to being immersed in the movie.

Finally, where Samsung has
packaged a Home Theater in a Box, the company Feature
Presentation has packaged a Home Theater in a Truck.You give them the dimensions of the room you want decorated like a
home theater, and for about $35,000 or so, they ship to you a
pre-fabricated set of columns, wall panels, ceiling soffits, lighting,
carpets, chairs, and other amenities that turn your dumpy old bonus room
into an authentic looking home theater.Optional upgrades include a Box Office with stuffed ticket taker (~
$2,000), a Marquee showing the movie Now Playing (~ $1250) and solid wood
usher doors featuring the round windows you remember from classic theaters
of yesteryear.

There really is no end to how far
you can go in creating the home theater of your dreams.

Wrap Up and Celebrity Sightings

Clearly, CEDIA offers something
for everyone in outfitting a home with the latest in entertainment gear.You will be seeing flat panel TVs in more and more settings in the
home.And they will
increasingly be HD compatible.Wireless
technology is also being built into more products, increasing their
capabilities while reducing the time needed for installation.Whole house audio continues to be high on homeowners' wish lists
and therefore continues to drive innovation in that sector.And if you can afford this kind of technology, increasingly you
also will be buying a work of art in terms of industrial design.

So, on behalf of the staff at
HomeToys, as well as Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell, I wish you great
success in outfitting your home with some of these amazing home toys.